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In Super Bowl broadcast, CBS hopes for history

Baltimore Ravens fan Cal Wheaton looks out toward the Super Bowl XLVII sculpture on a barge along the Riverwalk in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The city hosts NFL football's Super Bowl XLVII between the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

NEW YORK (AP) — Ratings glory hangs in the balance for CBS's broadcast of the Super Bowl.

Three years running, the NFL's championship game has set a viewership record, topped last year by NBC's broadcast to an average audience of 111.3 million people.

But ratings are a mere point of pride for CBS heading into kickoff. The ads have already been sold (some at more than $4 million a pop), so the network can now only hope to put forth its best broadcast and deflect as much of the Super Bowl glow to its other programs and its cable sports network.

After an afternoon of pregame programming, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms will call the game while more than 60 cameras cover the action — with at least one keeping an eye on the Harbaugh parents.